I once went to a lecture by poet Kathleen Jamie about first drafts. She read us a short one page poem, and then showed us all the drafts which the poem had gone through before it had been published. There were pages and pages of A4 on the desk piled up which showed the poem in various stages of undress.
This flock of revisions were all part of the poem’s journey towards becoming complete. Illustration is the same. Whether it’s an idea swirling around in your noggin’, being redrafted over and over by a metaphorical pencil, or literally taking form over and over again, these paperprints towards the finished draft of something are often fascinating in themselves, exposing the complex creative process, and acting as a sort of visual justification of the deliberations that went into the finished piece; a papertrail.
Jordan Andrew Carter is one hell of an illustrator; known for his Posca dabbed pencil drawings, and graphical prowess. His art juggles traditional and contemporary techniques to produce striking and relatable work. We took a quick look through Jordan’s sketchbook to see how he got from blank sheet to framed print.
You can buy products featuring his amazing illustrations from our site here. ohhdeer.com/collections/jordan-carter.